


Second Chance

by RadioactiveDeLorean



Series: Redemption [1]
Category: The LEGO Movie (2014)
Genre: Second Chances, can be interpreted as gen this time around, future relationship, i blame my friend for getting me into this pairing, i literally have no idea what to tag this help me, that's the title of the fic i know but shush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 16:26:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15465423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RadioactiveDeLorean/pseuds/RadioactiveDeLorean
Summary: After hearing nothing about Bad Cop since TAKOS Tuesday, Emmet can't help but feel worried about him. He goes out in search of the missing officer and decides to bring him home in order to help him.





	Second Chance

**Author's Note:**

> I blame [my friend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TransformersG1fan271/pseuds/TransformersG1fan271) for dragging me into this fandom, it's 100% their fault.

Going from a face in the crowd to the centre of attention pretty much all the time had been a severe blow to Emmet Brickowski’s system. Instead of being ignored by pretty much everyone he came into contact with, he was now constantly being swarmed by admirers. People thanked him in the streets for what he had done to save not only Bricksburg but the whole universe. He’d taken so many photos with random strangers over the past month that he was honestly sure half the population had him in their photo gallery somewhere. Along with the photos came autographs, and interviews, and reports for blogs and social media posts and all sorts of other things that Emmet would never have been involved in otherwise. He couldn’t say that he missed his old, lonely lifestyle, but sometimes he wished he had a little more time to himself.

His apartment was now full of so many gifts people had given him. From letters thanking him for his work to flowers and home-baked goods and stuffed toys and anything else people could think of to offer him. He honestly was running out of space in his little apartment for everything. He’d tried again and again to politely refuse any gifts people offered him (he really didn’t believe that he was deserving of any of it) but eventually, so many people just started leaving things on his doorstep that he had no choice but to accept it.  
  
News reports on television had talked about him for weeks, constantly praising the construction worker for his bravery, integrity, ingenuity and what he had done for everyone. He’d never been able to sit through a whole news report on himself, finding it, quite frankly, too embarrassing. He was glad that he’d been able to help save people from the horrible events of TAKOS Tuesday, but there was only so much of his own face he could see on television before it grew weary.

Soon enough, things began to calm down. After the chaos of TAKOS Tuesday had been cleared up, the city repaired and those utterly _bizarre_ “DUPLO” things were gone, the city of Bricksburg returned almost to normal. Of course, the Octan corporation had been completely renovated, and a huge ban on a lot of Octan products had been put in place. History books and voting machines, after it was discovered that they were heavily biased, were replaced throughout the city. Some Octan products were allowed to stay, but the vast majority were collected in and either destroyed or fixed up.

Thinking about Octan, Emmet had begun to wonder what had happened to a certain double-personality police officer. He hadn’t seen head nor tail of Bad Cop, or his brother, since that fateful Tuesday. After Lord Business had his change of heart and set about repairing all of the damage he had caused, his right-hand man - men? - had disappeared into thin air. Nobody had seen him in over a month, now, and Emmet couldn’t help but begin to worry. Sure, the guys had tried to kill him, but Bad Cop had turned over a new leaf mere hours before Lord Business had. Surely that meant that the police officers were ready to start anew, and prove that they were both good guys, despite their previous actions?  
  
Emmet let the thoughts slide for the time being. He still had a busy job, after all. It wasn’t like being the Special paid his bills, so he still found himself at the construction site every day for an eight a.m. start. His workload had been almost doubled recently, on account of all of the chaos, so he certainly couldn’t afford to spend time at home, worrying about someone he hadn’t seen for weeks.  
  
Still, the thought of what Bad Cop and his twin might be up to continued to plague Emmet’s mind throughout his shifts. Most of the time, he was able to focus on his work, but some things just threw him off completely. Be it someone wearing a pair of aviators, or kicking a chair in frustration, or even a particularly gruff voice after a long day of work, Emmet found himself thinking about the police officers yet again.  
  
Eventually, when he finally found himself able to warrant a couple of days off work, Emmet packed his car full of supplies - food, water, blankets, clean clothes etcetera - and set out in search of the missing officers. He wasn’t entirely sure where to look, but maybe the outskirts of town might be a good place to start. He headed towards the town border, starting to drive along the ring road that circumferenced the city before moving his way further in.

After a number of unsuccessful hours, Emmet decided to park his car in the lot at the edge of the park in the centre of the city, intending on taking a walk through the park in the hope of having better luck there. He brought a backpack stuffed with supplies, just in case he ran into the missing officers on his walk. The park was busy, with young children playing ball games, families having picnics or people going jogging throughout the park. Emmet whistled to himself, his hands in his pockets, as he walked down the paths winding their way through the park.

As he approached the abandoned park gardener’s shed, he noticed something strange. That shed hadn’t been in use in years, not since the park gardener had been gifted a proper house at the edge of the park by the locals as a thank-you gift. Yet the lights inside the small bungalow were on. Frowning, Emmet made his way over. Lights on inside the small house could mean one of two things: either some teenagers had broken in for a look, or he’d found who he was looking for.

Stepping up to the front door, Emmet took in the sight of the house around him. To say that it was dilapidated would have been an understatement; he was surprised the house was even still standing. The porch looked as though it had been cleaned recently, which was unusual. He doubted that there was any teenager in the universe who was that concerned about cleanliness. Raising his hand, Emmet knocked on the door.

It took a few moments, but the door opened soon enough, the chain on the latch preventing it opening any further than about an inch. One lens of a pair of aviator glasses peeked out behind the gap between the door and the wall, a messy crop of almost jet-black hair barely visible. “What are you doing here?” A familiar gruff voice snapped.

Emmet smiled gently, leaning in a little closer. “I’ve been looking for you all day. What are you guys doing out here?”  
  
“Keeping out the way of everyone else, like we’re supposed to do,” Bad Cop snapped. “We know damn well how everyone feels about us, so we figured we’d just stay where nobody can see us.”  
  
“Have… Have you been here since TAKOS Tuesday…?” Emmet asked softly, frowning as he watched the officer flinch at the mention of that awful day.

“Yeah, we have. The whole universe hates us right now, so we’ve been out here.”  
  
“I don’t hate you.” Emmet smiled gently.

“Course ya do. Everyone does, so there’s no reason for you not to as well. Especially after we tried ta… kill ya…” There was a hint of remorse in Bad Cop’s voice, causing the construction worker to frown again.

Emmet placed a hand on the doorframe. “Hey, can I come inside? I wanna talk to you guys without there being a door in the way.”  
  
“Give us one reason why we should let you in.” Emmet could hear the anxiety and betrayal in Bad Cop’s voice as he spoke. Emmet knew the betrayal wasn’t aimed at him; it was a result of having his boss essentially leave him to be killed after having used him. It was for his boss lying to him about what he was doing to people. It was for his boss injuring his brother so severely that Good Cop had been terrified of coming out for weeks. He’d only just started taking control again within the last few days. Now, Good Cop had retreated back to the dark corners of the twins’ mind, leaving Bad Cop in charge.

“Because I want to help you,” Emmet replied softly. “I know what Business did to you guys-” he noticed the way the officer flinched at the mention of the name “- and I wanna help you prove to everyone that you’re both good guys.”  
  
Bad Cop seemed to consider it for a moment before the door closed. There was the sound of the locks being undone before the door opened fully. Emmet smiled and stepped inside the small house, looking around as Bad Cop closed the door behind him. Emmet noticed that the only part of his uniform he seemed to have kept was the aviators. Aside from those, he was dressed in a plain, dark grey T-shirt and some stained jeans with shoes that looked as though they’d seen better days. A generic baseball cap rested on his head, pulled down slightly to shield his face.

The construction worker was led down the hall and through a door at the back into a small, bare kitchen. The paint was peeling off the walls, any colour the room once had having been bleached away by the sunlight. The table was old, stained and scratched, but looked as though it had just been cleaned and polished. Despite how run-down the place looked, Emmet was surprised to see how clean it was.

Bad Cop sat down in one of the seats at the breakfast table, loosely gesturing for Emmet to sit in the other. The construction worker did so, silently hoping that the chair wouldn’t disintegrate underneath him. Everything in the kitchen looked ancient.

“So, where do ya wanna start?” Bad Cop’s stern voice snapped Emmet out of his thoughts.  
  
“Oh, erm, well, why don’t we start with how you ended up here?”  
  
“We couldn’t stay at our old place, not with people knowin’ where we lived, and we couldn’t stay at Octan after what happened,” Bad Cop answered bluntly. “Next.”  
  
Emmet frowned. This was going to take some time. “Did you feel unsafe at your old place?”  
  
“Yes. We were gettin’ death threats on a daily basis, and someone threw a brick through our window at one point. We packed up and left that night.” Bad Cop’s voice seemed to shake ever so slightly as he recalled the incident. “Next.”  
  
“When was the last time you ate?”  
  
The question threw Bad Cop off completely. He sat in silence for a moment, trying to process what the Special had just asked him.

 _Did he… ask when we’d last eaten?_ Good Cop’s voice echoed in the back of the officer’s mind.

 _Yeah, he did,_ Bad Cop replied. _Can’t imagine why._

“Bad Cop?” Emmet asked softly. “You okay there?”  
  
Bad Cop shook his head quickly as his brother’s voice went quiet. “Oh, erm, I’m fine, just - did ye ask when we’d last eaten?”  
  
“Yeah, I did,” Emmet nodded. “Cause you look really thin.”  
  
Bad Cop glanced to the side, avoiding eye contact. “We haven’t eaten properly since TA- since _that_ Tuesday. Last time we ate was last week. We managed to find a couple dollars by the playground and just about managed to get ourselves a cheeseburger.”  
  
“You’re saying that all you’ve had to eat for a whole week has been one cheeseburger?!” Emmet gasped. “Good thing I brought snacks with me!” He swung his backpack around and set it down on the table, starting to rummage through it.  
  
“Wait, ye brought snacks with ya?!” Bad Cop’s eyes went wide behind his aviators.

“Yeah. Doesn’t hurt to be prepared, right?” Emmet grinned, offering him some sandwiches wrapped up in tin foil.

Bad Cop looked hesitant to accept the food. “You haven’t poisoned ‘em have you?”  
  
“No, no of course not!” Emmet shook his head. “Why would I do that?!”  
  
Bad Cop shrugged, taking the offering. “Can’t be too careful when the whole universe hates ya.” He unwrapped the foil package, taking hold of one of the sandwiches. The smell was too much to resist. Before long, he was devouring the sandwich ravenously, already grabbing a second.

Emmet was concerned to see just how hungry Bad Cop was as he ate. “Whoa there, don’t eat too fast or you’ll get sick!”  
  
Bad Cop swallowed the last mouthful of his fourth sandwich, wiping the crumbs from his face with the back of his hand. He rolled the tin foil up into a ball with his hands and sighed. “It’s just been so long since we had any proper food,” He admitted somewhat sheepishly. “We don’t exactly have much money, and it’s not like we can just walk into the grocery store without people givin’ us death threats.”  
  
Emmet frowned. “Hey, why don’t you two come over to my place? You can get out of this old shack and have some proper food.”  
  
“We - we can’t.” Bad Cop shook his head. “We just can’t.”  
  
“Why not?”

“Because we’ve already caused so much trouble for so many people; it’d be best if we just stayed away from everyone.”  
  
“But you said it yourself!” Emmet frowned. “You’ve got no money, no job, you’re stuck living in this abandoned wreck, you can’t seriously think it’s best if you just stay here?!”  
  
“It’s what we deserve after what we did.” Bad Cop stated firmly. “Now unless there’s anythin’ else ya’d like to ask us, I’d like ya to get out.”  
  
“I’m not leaving unless you come with me,” Emmet insisted. “You guys need help, and it isn’t fair that you’re locking yourselves up like this. Yeah, okay, you made mistakes, but you changed! You changed and you’re good guys now, and I want to help you prove that to everyone. Business got a second chance, so why can’t you let me gives you guys one?”  
  
Bad Cop sighed, staring at the little foil ball he’d been playing with for the last few minutes. “We’d be a danger to ya, lad. We’re getting death threats, and havin’ things thrown at us and getting yelled at every time we go outside. We can’t drag that situation into yer life. We just can’t.”  
  
“You’re not dragging that situation into my life if I welcome you in,” Emmet pointed out. “Now, c’mon, I’ll take you to my car and we can go from there, okay? Have you got much stuff here?”  
  
“Not really. A lot of it either got lost or left at our old apartment,” Bad Cop answered quietly, getting up from his seat. He tossed the tin foil ball into the trash. “We’ve only got a couple’a bags, that’s it really.”  
  
“Well, let me help you with them,” Emmet offered, getting to his feet. “Where are they?”  
  
“They’re in the bedroom. I haven’t really unpacked anything.” Bad Cop showed him to where the bedroom was. In all honesty, it appeared to be in an even worse state than the kitchen. The carpet was old, stained and filthy. The wallpaper was peeling off considerably and there was a weird smell coming from the place. There was only a single bed, a chest of drawers and a rickety old desk in the room. The bed sheets appeared to be absolutely disgusting, stained a manner of different colours by various different substances, none of which Emmet wanted to know the origin of. The officers’ bags were on the floor, shoved halfway underneath the bed.  
  
Emmet reached down and hauled the bags out from underneath the bed, easily carrying both of them simultaneously. Years of working in the construction business had left him more than capable of lifting heavy objects. The Special carried them out of the bedroom, heading for the front door.

Bad Cop picked up any of his other belongings that had been laying around the house, before following Emmet outside. He made sure all the lights were switched off before locking the place up tightly, leaving the key underneath the doormat. Emmet waited patiently for him, bags in hand. Once the place was secured, Bad Cop followed Emmet through the park towards his car.  
  
On the way there, Emmet noticed other citizens giving Bad Cop foul looks. The officer pulled his cap down lower over his eyes and adjusted his aviators before stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans. The nasty comments and harsh mutters bounced off his ears. He was used to hearing them by now, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t still hurt. Emmet changed his pace so that he was walking right beside Bad Cop, staring at those who glared at the officer until they looked away.  
  
In Bad Cop’s opinion, they couldn’t have made it to Emmet’s car fast enough. Emmet set the bags down by the boot of the car and unlocked it, hauling the bags into the boot before getting into the driver’s seat. Bad Cop got into the passenger seat, pulling the sun visor down in an attempt to hide his face as much as possible from anyone who might care to glance inside the car. Emmet started up his car and headed back towards his apartment.

The drive to Emmet’s apartment was practically silent. Emmet wasn’t sure how to engage in conversation and Bad Cop was still pretty certain that the Special hated him just as much as everyone else did. Although, Emmet had given him food, and taken him away from that disgusting shack, so maybe there was a chance that the Special _was_ ready to give the officers a second chance.

Bad Cop risked a glance over at the man sitting beside him. Nothing about Emmet’s demeanour around him screamed: “I hate you”. In fact, nothing about Emmet’s demeanour indicated that he had any negative feelings towards the officers at all. That just left Bad Cop horribly confused. Why did Emmet of all people think that he and his brother were deserving of a second chance? After everything the pair had done to harm the construction worker, Emmet should have been the one to hate him the _most._

 _I don’t understand this at all,_ Bad Cop thought to himself. _I really don’t._

 _The guy seems pretty forgiving,_ Good Cop replied thoughtfully. _After all, he did give Business a second chance, even after everything he did. Who’s to say he ain’t givin’ us the same treatment?_  
_  
_ _But do we really deserve it?_ Bad Cop countered. _We’ve done some nasty stuff too, ya know._

_What we did doesn’t even compare to what Business did. Besides, we were just following orders._

_We still actively decided to do half the stuff that we did, and we ended up hurtin’ so many innocent folks as a result._

_Look, for now, Emmet seems pretty certain on givin’ us a second chance, so let’s at least humour him and let him do that, okay? And if things go wrong, then we know not to try again._

Bad Cop sighed to himself. _Why do I let ya talk me into these things, Good?_

 _Because I’ve gotta be the voice of reason in this family,_ Good Cop replied in amusement. _Now quit worryin’ about whether or not Emmet hates us and just go with it for now. It’s not like we’ve got much to lose, right?_  
  
Bad Cop sighed again, dragging his hand over his face. He was utterly exhausted, and the silent argument he was having with his brother wasn’t helping the situation in the slightest.  
  
Emmet glanced over at the officer sat beside him. “You okay there?”  
  
“Yeah, ‘m fine, just tired,” Bad Cop dismissed his concerns with a few meagre excuses. “How much farther is your apartment?”  
  
“Not far, just a few more blocks and another turn and we’re there,” Emmet assured him. Sure enough, he soon turned a corner into a dinky little parking garage, setting his car in his designated spot. He got out the car, waiting patiently for Bad Cop to follow him. The officer reluctantly followed, still unsure about this whole thing.

“I’ll get the spare room sorted out as soon as we get inside, okay?” Emmet’s voice came from the boot of the car, where he was already digging out Bad Cop’s bags. “I don’t have the bed in there made up, since I never have anybody staying over, but it shouldn’t take me longer than an hour to get everything ready.”  
  
Bad Cop nodded, taking one of his bags from Emmet as the construction worker locked up his car. They headed towards the entrance to the apartment block, riding the elevator up to the third floor. Emmet took him down a corridor, digging out his key from his pocket. He opened up his apartment - ‘Apt 3F’ it read in brass lettering on the door, Bad Cop noticed - and the pair headed inside.  
  
Bad Cop’s first impression of the place was that it was _spotlessly_ clean. Every inch of the place had been dusted, vacuumed and polished to perfection. The decorative pillows on the couch were perfectly aligned and smoothed out to avoid any creases at the corners. Any trinkets, books, ornaments and other display items were all perfectly arranged on shelves. Everything just looked so _perfect,_ almost as if Bad Cop had just walked into a showhome. The second thing he noticed was just how many flowers, balloons, cards, letters and gifts were scattered around. These were all perfectly organised as well, but the sheer _volume_ of them had Bad Cop momentarily speechless. It was no secret how grateful the universe was for what the Special had done, but Bad Cop had never quite understood the level of that gratitude until now. There was just so much going on in Emmet’s living room alone. He noticed a stack of unopened mail, comprised of both letters and parcels, stacked neatly on the coffee table.

His stomach churned uncomfortably at the realisation that nobody was ever going to appreciate him anywhere _near_ as much as they clearly appreciated Emmet. He was never going to have any kind of gratitude directed towards him, not that he deserved any. Bad Cop was fully aware of what he’d done, and he was fully aware of the fact that he did not, under any circumstances, deserve to be forgiven for it.

“Spare room’s this way,” Emmet said somewhere to Bad Cop’s left and the officer shook his head quickly, snapping himself out of his thoughts. He followed the construction worker down the hall and through another door into a small bedroom. It wasn’t anything particularly extravagant, but again it was _spotless._ Bad Cop figured Emmet must spend a huge portion of his free time cleaning. There was a single bed, a small bookcase, a small bedside table and a wardrobe with some drawers taking up the bottom half. It was perfect for one person. Emmet had already taken Bad Cop’s bags inside the room, smiling patiently as the officer looked around.

“I know it isn’t very big, but I hope it’ll do,” Emmet said somewhat sheepishly. “The bathroom is that pale blue door just down the hall, okay?”  
  
“I - uh - this is - this is more than what we deserve, really…” Bad Cop stuttered, still looking around. “... thank you…”  
  
Emmet smiled that reassuring smile of his again and nodded. “It’s no problem, guys, really. I’ll let you get settled in.” With that, he quietly left the room, leaving the officers to get themselves settled in.

 _See, told ya it wouldn’t be so bad,_ Good Cop said, and Bad Cop could practically _see_ the grin in his brother’s voice.

 _Okay, so we got lucky fer once, don’t push it,_ Bad Cop sighed. _Just because he’s offerin’ to have us stay here fer a while ‘til we get back on our feet don’t mean we’re outta the woods yet. Don’t forget the whole universe still hates us._

_Doesn’t mean we have to keep actin’ like we deserve ta be hated, y’know. If the lad’s willin’ ta give us a second chance, who’s to say some of the others won’t too?_

_You saw how they were treatin’ us in the park. We can’t let our guard down just yet._

_I know, but fer now just let the lad help us, okay?_  
  
_… Okay, fine, I’ll let him help us._ Bad Cop frowned in thought. _How’re you feelin’?_  
_  
I’m still kinda nervous, to be honest, but I feel like I’d be alright talkin’ ta Emmet at some point.  I doubt he’s gonna do anything. It’s just… I’m still pretty shaken up by what you-know-who did…_

_I know, bud, and I’m sorry I let him do that to ya._

_It wasn’t your fault Bad, so don’t you dare blame yerself for it, okay? I’ll take over when I feel comfortable, but fer now let’s just focus on lettin’ the lad help us out, okay?_  
_  
_ _Alright…_ Bad Cop didn’t sound too convinced but decided to listen to his brother for the time being. He made himself busy with unpacking his bags, putting his clothes away in neat piles in the drawers beneath the wardrobe. He hung up his shirts and jackets, noticing that most, if not all, of his clothes were in dire need of a good wash. Bad Cop sighed and decided to do the laundry at a later date. For now, he really was too tired to do anything else. His brain was already buzzing with dozens of different thoughts, most of them revolving around whether or not himself and his brother could really trust Emmet fully. Sure, the guy seemed trustworthy enough, but that could merely be a façade he’d put up in order to get the cops to trust him. Then, when he was close enough, Emmet could strike and show the cops just how badly they’d hurt him and everyone else in the universe by what they’d done. Both cops knew that they deserved whatever Emmet was going to throw at them, and they knew that there would be no point in trying to prevent their inevitable punishment.

For now, though, they were willing to let Emmet help them. It was their only choice at the moment.


End file.
